


DID YOU THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH IT FOREVER?

by gothikuk



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25504747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothikuk/pseuds/gothikuk
Summary: It always bothered me, how Alistair or Stroud or Loghain never suspected Blackwall of not being a Grey Warden.
Relationships: Morrigan/Warden (Dragon Age)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	DID YOU THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH IT FOREVER?

Leliana walked the grounds of Skyhold, apparently, according to Josephine and the Inquisitor, shutting herself up in her loft was unhealthy for her. She ignored the myriad of riders that made their way through the gates, after all this was Skyhold and messengers from all over southern Thedas were coming and going. She saw Kieran and his mother walk round the stables, the beasts that called the vast stables home an obvious source of fascination for the young man. She made her way over to see Morrigan talking to Master Dennet whilst Kieran was looking at the Hunter Shade Drasolisk. She nodded at Morrigan who arched an eyebrow, probably surprised to see the Spymaster leave her rookery.

“Good morning Kieran.” She softly spoke as she joined his side.

Leliana, like the other members of their travelling group from the days of the blight were the only ones who knew what had occurred the day the Archdemon died. Of course, the Orlesian Wardens and the Wardens of the Anderfels had wanted to know what had happened and how it was that the Grey Wardens survived the fight with Uthemiel, but no answer had ever been forth coming and eventually they stopped asking.

“Good morning aunt Leliana.” Kieran looked round, and moved a little so the Nightingale could stand beside him. “Doesn’t he look fierce?”

“He does.” She agreed and reaching out stroked the beasts’ nose. “But they are very quick, perhaps if your mother is agreeable, I can take you riding later.”

“Can I? Mother please?” Morrigan glanced over as her son called her.

“Are your studies done little man?”

“Yes mother” Kieran nodded he knew better to ask her if he could go play when he had studies to do.

“Then maybe if Aunt Leliana is agreeable, we can all go for a ride.”

“Perhaps you can tame this one Morrigan.” Leliana motioned to the newest addition to the stable. A magnificent Hart.

“It surely is a fantastic beast.” Morrigan thanked Master Dennet and walked over herself. “Is this not The Iron Bull’s mount?”

“It threw him the first day he tried to mount it.” Leliana sniggered a little and lowered her hood.

Morrigan noticed that her old friends red hair was looking lighter these days, then again neither of them were getting any younger and yet, the years of working in the shadows and going where the Divine could not, had kept a fresh-faced look about the bard. At first the Nightingale had been suspicious of Morrigans intent on coming to Skyhold. When she had met Kieran and realised who he was, and the change that had come over Morrigan in the intervening years, she too let her guard fall.

“I bet father could ride him, if he were here.” Kieran beamed.

“I think even your father would have trouble riding this beast.” Morrigan smiled a little.

Leliana half expected Morrigan to throw out a cutting remark or two when she had arrived but instead, she had been polite and helpful. The rough edges smoothed by her son it seemed.

“Have you heard from him?” Leliana asked whilst Kieran went with Master Dennet to choose a mount suitable for him.

“No.” Morrigan shook her head “I know why he is doing what he is doing but, well I just wished he had stayed a little longer.”

Leliana didn’t answer that, to be honest she was not sure what to say, no one knew where the Hero of Ferelden was, all she knew was his last letter to her had said that he was going to find a cure for the taint in his blood. A way to rid himself of that which made him a Grey Warden and time was not going to be kind to him for much longer.

“Has Kieran met his Uncle Fergus?” Leliana changed the subject, curious to see if the young man had met his fathers’ older brother.

“He has, the last trip we took together before he took himself off, Kieran loves Fergus and Fergus adores him, makes a complete fuss of him when he is there. So much so that I make sure Kieran stays in touch with him and, when time permits, I will take him to Highever to see him once more.”

“So, what started Dane on his quest?” Leliana frowned a little “I thought he was happy with you?”

“He was happy.”

“And Fergus is not bothered about Kieran?”

“The Landsmeet have recognised Kieran as Dane and Fergus’s heir. As you know, Fergus remarried but his second wife is unable to have a child, I am happy for him to be the next Tyern of Highever, but not yet. He is but a young boy and he needs to see the world before such things take precedence. To answer your original question, it was in a Dalish book. There was a passage there, small and one might miss it if they merely glance over it, but the passage stated that there was a cure for the Warden Taint, the trouble was, all lore on it had long since vanished from memory. Dane was adamant that he would find the cure, no matter how long it takes, and so far for the last five years he has been on this search of his. Leaving Nathaniel Howe as the new Warden Commander of Ferelden, although I believe he and Oghren wanted to go with him, he refused.”

Leliana sniggered a little “Yes, I can see how Oghren would have wanted to go, I was half expecting him to turn up at Skyhold, looking to join the Inquisition as its resident Grey Warden, but we already have one of them.”

Morrigan glanced to the quarters where the hands slept and Master Dennet, to see Blackwall working the forge. “Hmm” She muttered, but said no more on it.

Kieran kicked at the dirt under his feet, waiting for his mother and aunt to finish talking. He glanced up at Blackwall who was busy working and merely nodded at the lad, but Kieran carried on watching him. If he was a Grey Warden then it might have been dangerous for the young lad to be around him, a Grey Warden would sense the taint in the boy, or rather the old god’s soul to be more precise. He shrugged it off a little. It was nothing to do with him, and the further he stayed from any Grey Warden the better, although seeing Alistair yesterday talking to him mother made him happy. Alistair had been one of his father’s original companions, but to hear the Warden speak, well maybe he and his father did not part on the best of terms. He looked around at the people milling about in the courtyard.

He was so very tired of travelling and here, at least he had a warm bed to sleep in and was warm. He did not mind the Winter Palace but the masks were…bizarre to him. He heaved a sigh, eager to be on his ride when he noticed a hooded figure watching him from the stairs that led up to Commander Cullen’s quarters. He liked Cullen, the man had wonderful stories, not as dramatic as Varric maybe but he taught him about swordplay, something his mother had frowned upon but, as long as he did his studies then what he did in his free time was his to do. The Commander only let him practise with a wooden sword for the moment but it was fun, and he was patient with Kieran.

The man watching him shielded his face from those around him, the crook of the hood of his cloak making him look like some bird of prey. Kieran frowned a little and cocked his head then his eyes widened as silverite gauntlets rose up and moved the hood from his face.

“FATHER!” he shouted loud enough for everyone to hear and before Morrigan could stop him he tore across the ground towards the armoured figure.

She watched as Kieran was grasped firmly and lifted into the air and swung around, the boy’s laughter a sight to behold as the mighty warrior brought him down and smothered him in kisses.

“Dane?” Morrigan frowned then, forgetting, or maybe not caring about who was around her, she too ran over and was lifted the same as her son had been and brought down to waiting mouth to kiss.

As the cloak fell to the ground the whispers began to circulate, “The Hero of Ferelden!”

“That’s the Warden Commander!”

“That’s the Hero of Ferelden!!”

Leliana walked at first but when the Commander of the Grey turned to her, he opened his arms and Leliana too was swept into a strong crushing hug.

“Why didn’t you write to tell us you were coming!” She smacked his armour.

“I wanted to see how my little man was doing first, couldn’t have done that if you knew I was coming.” Dane Cousland, the Hero of Ferelden, grinned. “and your letters disturbed me so, I diverted back to Skyhold.”

“Will you be going to Denerim father?” Kieran asked.

“No son, I am here for a few days, to allay the Heralds fears and then I will be continuing with my quest. But when I heard you and your mother were here, well nothing, not even an archdemon would stop me from getting here.”

“All the Wardens of Ferelden vanished.” Leliana told him as her put his arm round Morrigans waist and held her close. “I have not had word about Nathaniel or Oghren.”

“They are with me.” He assured her “At the moment they are away from Orlais when we received word that all wardens were vanishing it was decided I would journey alone.”

“And Velanna and Sigrun?” Morrigan asked

“No one knows where Velanna is and Sigrun died a year ago.” He ran a hand down his face and holding up a finger he crossed to his horse and lifted a bound and hooded figure from the back of it. “A gift for your Seeker and Inquisitor.” He put the unconscious figure over his shoulder and told Leliana to lead on.

*****

It was one thing to have the Champion of Kirkwall hanging out with Varric in the hall, but to also watch as the hall fell silent and the giant of a Grey Warden strode through the halls with his son and his lover either side of him was something that Adrienne Trevelyan never for one moment believed she would ever see.

“My Lord Cousland, welcome to Skyhold.” The Inquisitor bowed her head.

“Thank you, Inquisitor. Now I believe he belongs to you.” And he almost threw the body to the floor and removed the hood.

Varric stared open mouthed as the figure was hauled to his feet, dirty short blonde hair, he looked like he had not eaten in months and dark rings sat under his eyes for lack of sleep.

“Is that?” Cassandra stared her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“It is, I found him in the Deep Roads,” Dane inclined his head “It would have been easier to let him die down there, but then where would the justice be for those he wronged.” He lent into Anders shoulder and growled “and a death in the deep roads is for those Wardens who seek honour and glory in their final days, not for a man who has murdered hundreds and has the blood of thousands on his hands.”

“You were my friend,” Anders croaked “You should have left me there.”

“You stopped being my friend Anders when you blew up the Fucking Chantry and started a war that has led to this!” He stepped back “As Warden Commander of the Grey of Ferelde, I hand him into the charge of the Inquisition, leaving him anywhere else would mean he would escape or have someone help him escape."

Adrienne looked at Cassandra and then at the wreck of the man before her. “Put him in the cells and have a healer look over him, give him food and water.” The Inquisitor folded her arms and heaved a sigh of relief, the instigator of the Mage Rebellion, here, a prisoner of Skyhold? That was one for the history books.

Cassandra shoved him forward and as Anders passed the group in the corridor his eyes fell on a stunned Varric and a glaring Hawke. No forgiveness in their eyes for the man that, they had once called friend, played Wicked Grace with and helped keep him from the eyes of the Templars. With a snap of his fingers and a bash of his staff he plunged Kirkwall, and eventually the world into a war that had consequences that had yet to fully materialise.

“Have you plans to stay Warden Commander?” Adrienne asked, hoping that he might,

“I only wish to stay for a couple of days to see my son.” Dane ruffled his son’s hair “but I also wish to hear of any involvement My wardens have with this Coryphaeus.” 

The Lady Herald inclined her head and told him to rest and they would talk later. She glanced at her lover and the Seneschal of the Inquisition as well as its Ambassador, “Would you have all information we have on Coryphaeus at the Hero’s disposal.”

“Of course.”

She looked at Leliana “Well I bet this has made your day, your best friend here at Skyhold. Perhaps My Lord, you would convince her to take it easy for a few days.”

“I will try my best My Lady.” Dane bowed his head and lifting his son put him on his shoulders and walked out with Morrigan.

****

Skyholds garden was not where Dane thought to find Morrigan calling home, he thought that she might have become too used to the finery of the Orlesian Court. Nice to see some of her love of the wild had still remained within her. Now out of his armour and in casual clothes he watched as the people milled about around him, glances shot his way and the occasional soldier who had been at Denerim that fateful day, for that fateful battle came over and shook his hand.

He had met the Iron Bull when he had gone for a drink with Cullen and Leliana, but had muttered to himself that he preferred Stens Company, not that he didn’t appreciate a Qunari who could out drink and out sex everyone there, it just felt strange to him. But each to their own and he beat Bull in a wrestling match.

He had asked Cullen what had become of the Circle after he left, and Cullen had told him, how he went to Kirkwall and what Anders had done, Leliana had also told him that Wynne had died at Adamant, but they had her son and his Templar lover working for them, helping Templars and Mages find Skyhold. He had ridden a Hart with his lover and son and had raced Leliana and Hawke around Skyholds lower perimeter, although he had not ridden the Pride of Arlethan Hart, it seemed that one was for the Inquisitor, for she had joined them and it had not thrown her.

Now he sat in the relative peace of the garden reading up on what had happened in the Western Approach. His mind disbelieving what he was reading.

“Its true you know, the Warden Mages are binding demons.”

He looked up to see Alistair stand before him all resplendent in his armour. “Bloody wardens doing what they think best.” Dane muttered a little angrily and put the reports down “Don’t tell me you agree with what they are doing Alistair?”

“Of course not!” Alistair glared “but they had their reasons. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the calling since being here?”

“I’ve heard it.” Dane nodded “But that’s no excuse, Clarel knows better.”

“I doubt she knew about Coryphaeus, hell I didn’t fucking know until Hawke told me and I did some digging of my own, because you know Wieshaupt is really open about long buried warden prisons and their talking darkspawn prisoner” Alistair sat himself on the covered well. “I didn’t even know Darkspawn could talk.”

“I met two once.” Dane scratched his ear “One called himself the Architect the other a human Broodmother called the Mother.”

“I heard.”

“Well if this is what they know,” he pointed to the papers “then the Architect is the same as Coryphaeus, one of the original magisters that cracked the Golden City.”

“Makers Breath!” Alistair swore “Coryphaeus was a high Priest of Dumat what about the Architect?”

“The high priest of the Dragon we slew in Denerim.”

“Fuck me,” Alistair shook his head and glanced to where Kieran was sitting cross legged with his books around him. “He looks like you, with his mother’s eyes,”

“He’s a good lad.” Dane followed Alistair’s gaze “I miss him every day and Morrigan.”

“Now there something I never thought I would see, Morrigan settled and well, kinder. Motherhood has tempered her somewhat.”

“I am sure she will be glad to hear that, coming from you.”

“No, she’s not, not really, she nearly bit my balls off when I suggested that she had left you.”

Dane smirked wryly and sat back folding his arms across his chest. “I regret joining Anders now, all this,”

“What he did would have happened eventually.” Alistair shrugged “Maybe not the in the way it happened, but eventually it would have happened.”

“And the mages using blood magic to bind demons for what? A march into the Deep Roads to end all the Blights?”

“Now you sound like Hawke.” Alistair muttered.

“Well the Champion is not wrong, there is no justification for this Alistair. None at all, if this is what being a Grey Warden means, well sooner I am rid of it all the better.”

“Yes that’s right, leave us to fight the corrupted magister while you race off on a useless quest to find a cure that does not exist.” Alistair flippantly remarked.

“This is for us all that I am doing it!” Dane got up “Oh I get what this is, because I sided with Anora at the Landsmeet, you didn’t want the blasted throne! Your words exactly!”

“She would have thrown me in prison!”

“She didn’t did she! I told her to let you return to the Wardens.”

“Yeah great favour you did me there brother.” Alistair got up “I could have used your help!”

“You could have come to Amaranthine with me but you didn’t!”

“She exiled me!”

“She can’t exile a Grey Warden, you just played into her hands!” Dane narrowed his eyes “But then you always did leave the harsher decisions to me, leading me then berating me for every damn decision I made.”

“CONNOR!”

“Connor was an abomination!” Dane clenched his fists and Alistair mirrored his action “CONNOR WAS POSSESSED BY A DEMON OF DESIRE!”

“YOU COULD HAVE TRIED HARDER!”

“There was no time to go to the circle and return, or would you rather Isolde give up her life with the use of Blood Magic?”

Alistair waved his hand and got up “You’ll never change Dane, your parents murder put you on a dark path long before you became the Hero of Ferelden.”

“And your unwillingness to stand up for anything left you nothing more than a footnote in history.” Dane shot back. “Good luck finding the Wardens responsible for the deaths of our friends in the Wardens and good luck trying to reason this out with the Nobility! Cause they sure as fuck are not going to accept The Wardens were wrong but they had their reason line.”

Alistair grunted and turning walked away, or rather stomped away. Dane shook his head and looked to the heavens. Alistair was not wrong in some regards, but in others he just didn’t get it. Dane was not so blinded by the comradery of the Wardens as Alistair was. He saw the things they did and questioned, whereas Alistair accepted that it was the life they led.

No Warden bended their knee save to Wieshaupt, well, that was wrong from the get go, it meant that Wardens did pretty much what they wanted without censure. Makers Arse, Alistair had been his friend, and that friendship had eroded away, leaving them unable to be in the same space as each other for long. Old hurts came out leaving them unable to be the best friends they had been once.

He had hoped that it would change, that they could find peace, but not in this lifetime it seemed. Dane took himself away from the garden and out onto the ramparts. Kieran had told him that there was a Grey Warden in the stables, and he was curious as to why this Warden had not left with the others.

Leliana and the Inquisitor both had said that Blackwall did not fear the Calling and did not let it control him, but Dane had known Blackwall, met him a couple of times after the Blight, but the Marcher had simply vanished and now he was here? Curious because the only other warden he sensed was Alistair, and if they indeed had a Warden with them, why did Alistair not mention it?

He headed down to the stables and stood looking at the mounts. His own horse looking content as it chewed some hay. He saw Blackwall and closed his eyes for a moment, then with a dark look on his face he walked into the stable and closed the doors.

“I don’t know who you are, but you are most certainly not Warden Blackwall.”

Blackwall was about to demand who they were when he turned and looked straight into the eyes of the Hero of Ferelden. He had a face like thunder on him and Blackwall knew there and then that he had been busted. This was why he had avoided other Wardens; he had been lucky when Alistair seemed to ignore him, but then he hadn’t actually made his notice to Alistair.

Dane walked round the stables and looked at the griffon carving and picked up the chisel. “Tell me, not Blackwall, why in the Makers name would you want to pretend to be a Grey Warden?”

“You are mistaken sir; I am a Grey Warden.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me, lie to them if you must, but don’t lie to me!” Dane threw the chisel down “A Grey Warden can sense another Grey Warden; it is how Anders knew where to take Carver Hawke when he contracted the Blight. It is how we can sense where the Darkspawn are, and I sense nothing in you.”

Blackwall moved his hand to his sword. Dane looked at it and then at him, he walked round the stable.

“I saw Duncan kill a man once, for refusing to take the Joining, I watched my friend die of the poison it puts into your body and I have been plagued by nightmares ever since. The only time I find peace in my sleep is when I am beside my Morrigan or with my boy.” He glanced at Blackwall’s sword arm “If your going to draw make sure you take off my head, cause that will be the only thing that saves you, Not Blackwall. How do I know you are not Blackwall, because I knew Blackwall, I was there when he received his silver wings of Valour, he came to Amaranthine to aid my wardens in rebuilding, and here you stand, with his name and his honour calling it your own?”

The Hero perched on the table and cocked his head a little arching an eyebrow that said he was waiting.

Blackwall said nothing, he just watched the Hero of Ferelden wondering if he was going to strike him down.

“I am waiting for an answer! You want to be a fucking Grey Warden so bad I’ll join you here and now. Course then you really will hear the Calling, and you will be compelled to join all the other Wardens in their misguided attempted to end the Blights”

“You aren’t helping your fellow Wardens, so someone has to do it, to stand up for our honour and reputation.”

“You mean MY Order’s honour and reputation,” Dane corrected “You are not a Grey Warden and the only reason you have got away with it is because no one else here is a Grey Warden.” Dane got up “Bluff away, pretend to be something your not, do what you like, but eventually Not Blackwall, you are going to come unstuck, because eventually the Inquisitor, the Seeker, even my dear Leliana will begin to question your resolve, how you have managed to avoid the false calling when Wardens in other countries have succumbed.”

“You didn’t hear it!”

“I never said I didn’t hear it, I do hear it, more now I am here, but where I have been and where I am going is far from here.”

“Blackwall was going to make me a warden but he died before he could take me to Orlais to be joined.”

“So, you took his name, his reputation and pretended to be a Grey Warden,” Dane shook his head.

“He was an honourable man who saw something in me I didn’t”

“Yes, he was, and now you are dirtying his name and his deeds by claiming them as yours.” Dane laughed unkindly “The reason you have got away with it, is because until now you have been the only “warden” here, I suggest you think long and hard, because its going to catch up with you.” He opened the door “I would have had more respect for you if you had used your own name and not stolen my friends. You are a disgrace to his memory. No one in their right mind wants to be a Grey Warden, especially not right now,” Dane shook his head and pointed at him “You have been found out Not Blackwall,” and with that he walked away.

*****

Dane stood with Leliana armoured with a pack over his shoulder, he had said his goodbyes to Morrigan and Kieran, even said goodbye to Alistair aswell as others. He stood with his arm around her and let her lean onto his shoulder.

“When will we see you again Dane?”

“I don’t know Leli, soon I hope, hopefully I can return to help the Inquisition as a normal man and not a Grey Warden.”

“You will be a Grey Warden, wether or not you find the cure.” She told him.

“Blackwall.”

“What about him? Is he succumbing?”

“He won’t succumb because he isn’t a Grey Warden.” Dane dropped a kiss on the top of her head and stood back “I don’t know who he is or what he was, but he is not Warden Blackwall.”

“Why lie about this?” She glowered. Leliana supported the Wardens, believed in them, to suddenly discover that one of their own was lying….at least Bull was upfront about what he was.

“Ask him, then ask him how it feels to take the Joining, you know because of what Alistair and I told you, you know how much it burns how much it hurts and that moment when you come through the pain and wake up, you know how the whispers are always there Leliana, you saw how Alistair and I struggled in nights at camp, how we knew the Spawn were attacking before they attacked us in Camp.”

“I will look into this and inform the Inquisitor when I have the proof.” Leliana shook her head.

“Be safe Nightingale.” He drew her into a hug “and look after my boy for me?”

“Always and keep in touch”

“I’ll try, now I have better go meet Oghren and Nathaniel.”

“You know that Cassandra is executing Anders tonight, quietly so no one can make him a martyr.”

“I will mourn the Anders I knew, not what he became.” Dane quietly said and with a sad smile he walked out of the loft. Leliana watched him say goodbye to his lover and his son once more and with a nod to the Inquisitor and Seeker he rode out of Skyhold.

It was only after Adamant that Blackwall’s fake life caught up with him, Blackwall was revealed to be Thom Rainier a wanted criminal. The killer of an Orlesian noble and his family. With Alistair dying at the hands of the nightmare demon and the Wardens having to stay away from the Venatori, Adrienne had him joined to the wardens then, told him to leave and not return. The Inquisition had no place for him, especially as his lie had caused hurt and unrest amongst her companions.

Morrigan sent word to her love about Alistair and the Inquisition was sent a Therin Shield and Armour, so that Alistair would not be forgotten by them. When she also told him about Blackwall, the reply she got had: “With any luck the Joining will kill him, he does not deserve to wear the Grey.” 


End file.
